Teaching Spelling To Young (2nd Grader) Children
by Steve Hudgik
What do you do with a second grader that, in addition to being more interested in Nintendo than in school, does not seem able to learn. It could be that he is young for his grade - his birthday is in June which makes him one of the youngest kids in the class. It could be because he's a boy -- I've always heard that girls do better in school at this age. He seems to be intelligent and can remember the names of every insect in his insect book, but he just can't seem to remember how even the simplest words are spelled.
My wife and I tried everything we could think of. Flash cards. Repetitive drills. Some weeks we'd spend an hour a day working with him on his spelling words, but he was lucky to correctly spell more than five of the ten words on friday's spelling test. He just wasn't getting it, and only was growing more frustrated the more we tried to help him.
I was getting worried that we might be pushing him too hard and all he was learning was to hate spelling. A different approach was called for.
I had no ideas until I realized how I had learned to spell-- or at least how I learned to improve my spelling. I could see where my son got his problems with spelling. I've always been terrible at spelling. Through twelve years of school I was a "B" student. Except for spelling. The only subject I ever received an "F" in was 8th grade spelling.
How had I learned to spell? My spelling only improved when I got my first job and had to write regular reports. The spelling had to be correct and I soon got tired of looking words up in the dictionary. My having to look up the correct spelling of words was inconvenient and tiring.
So I decided to apply the inconvenience method of learning to teaching my son how to spell. And it worked!
Here's what we do. Every monday when he comes home from school I get the list of that week's spelling words and write them in large letters on a sheet of paper. I tape the paper to the window behind his chair at the dinner table. Now, when we study spelling, the rules are that he can turn around to look at the list and see how a word is spelled anytime he wants. But, turning around to look at the word is inconvenient. It's easier to remember how the word is spelled so he doesn't have to turn around.
Using this method helps him learn in many ways. For example, memory is involved. He can't write the word while he is looking at it. He has to turn around, look at the word, commit it to memory, then turn back to the table and write the word in whatever exercise we are working on. If he forgets how to spell the word he has to turn around again and repeat the process.
Plus there seems to be a bit of macho pride coming into play. My son doesn't like to have to turn around and look at the list. It's become a matter of pride that he can spell all of the words on the list without looking.
And it all works without either my wife or myself badgering him or making him feel bad about spelling. He now looks forward to working on his spelling words and the challenge of not turning around to look--and he's getting perfect scores on his spelling tests!
The inconvenience method of teaching spelling worked for us. But it may not be right for your child. But if you keep looking, and apply your own experience toward finding different ways of helping your children, you can find ways to help your kids improve their grades in school.
